Category: Democratization

Ukraine: reasons for pessimism – and cautious optimism

     

Time is up for Ukraine’s President to convince society, politicians, and Western partners that he’s prepared to fight corruption. Every day of delay proves the opposite. By not interfering, Poroshenko… Read more »

Understanding Reform in Myanmar – a new configuration of power?

     

The National League for Democracy’s vigorous support of the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord and national political dialogue along with efforts to strengthen the parliament and other existing institutions can help to… Read more »

Democratizing China

     

  Perhaps the most intriguing question regarding political development in the post-Mao era is why China has not taken significant steps toward democratization despite more than two decades of unprecedented… Read more »

Aylwin, who led Chile’s post-Pinochet transition, dies at 97

     

  Patricio Aylwin, who as president of Chile in 1990 led the country’s transition to democracy from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, died on Tuesday at his home here. He was… Read more »

Ukrainians want reform, oligarchs block it

     

Ukrainians are growing increasingly frustrated with their government and the slow pace of reforms, especially when it comes to tackling corruption, according to a new nationwide poll released today by the International… Read more »

Europe’s troubled neighborhood: From ‘circle of friends’ to ‘ring of fire’?

     

Sustaining stable, democratic, and economically-successful states in its surrounding regions is a strategic priority and core interest for the European Union. However, Europe’s neighborhood is currently confronting a series of… Read more »

Dictators don’t stabilize the Middle East

     

A number of American politicians have suggested that the Arab Spring was a disaster and that the region needs strongmen to stabilize it, but while working on Middle East policy at the… Read more »

Can Ukraine achieve a reform breakthrough?

     

  It is easy to characterize Ukraine’s latest attempt to reform as a repeat of the unrealized potential of the 2004 Orange Revolution, analysts John Lough and Iryna Solonenko write… Read more »

The Puzzle of the Chinese Middle Class

     

Seymour Martin Lipset famously argued that economic development would enlarge the middle class, and that the middle class would demand democracy. Writing in the latest issue of the Journal of… Read more »